This is known primarily from romantic comedies: the audience has long been suspected that the two protagonists would fit perfectly together, only they need 90 minutes to view the obvious one too. Surprisingly, it is done at the beginning of “Cicada“Even if director Ina Weisse delivered a rather brittle drama this time after her abysmal, printing violin teacher psychogram“ The foreplay ”.
The architect Isabell (Nina Hoss), who works as a broker, urgently needs a caregiver for her father (played by the director's father), a former architect of a certain rank, who has been dependent on help in his Berlin apartment since a stroke. Anja (Saskia Roesendahl), in turn, is a job-seeking single mother with a tapping attitude, who also comes from the Brandenburg village in which Isabell's father once had the family's self-designed weekend house built. Two birds with one flap and such.
Published generation problems: While Isabell (Nina Hoss) takes care of her parents, Anja (Saskia Roesendahl) is afraid that the daughter will be taken away from her.
However, the resolution is not as simple as in a typical Romcom. The word twist would probably be too high, but “cicadas” still ends on a surprising note – at a moment when you would like to know how it would go on now. Such a good time was actually found for the credits. The only problem is that this curiosity only develops in the last quarter of the 100-minute term. Anja's daughter briefly lost in the first scene with a stick in a small animal carcass infected by maggots-a kick-off metaphor that you can be sure that something is going under the surface here.
But after that, everyday observations about Isabelle's marriage problems with her French husband Philipp (Vincent Macaigne) and Anja's difficulties with her attacking boss in the bowling center (Thorsten Merten) ripple. There are a number of strongly observed moments that are also put into pictures by the great camera hunter Judith Kaufmann (“the glory of life”)) that definitely give the Brandenburg province of cinema format. The excitement, which is always latently swinging after opening, that something may not be right here only really unfolds when you think back to the previous events from the end.
Extensive simmer in front of a (too) short bubble
Has “Zikaden” possibly (still) become more subtle than planned? In any case, none of this is as clear as in the description on the Berlinale website: “The more Anja and her daughter Greta will live part of Isabell's life, the more insecure it becomes in terms of everything that is supposed to build up so carefully has. Isabell feels how the floor is understood under it while increasing control, ”it says. Instead, “Zikaden” is more reminiscent of the concept that Isabell's father followed in the design of the weekend house: he did not want to stipulate the functionality of the individual rooms, but only create a framework that everyone can then fill with their ideas .
In keeping with this, the two main actresses also give reserved performances: Especially in comparison to their baseless, driven forward push in “The prelude”, for which they were awarded the best actress at the film festival in San Sebastián, Nina Hoss (“Tár”) is noticeable this time this time on the brake. Saskia Rosendahl, who was nominated for the German Film Prize in 2021 (for “Fabian or the Gang in front of the dogs”) and 2022 (for “Nobody is nobody in the calves”) for two years in a row If Anja somehow tries to cling to her few professional opportunities, but then get the next neck hit again. For a long time, she only indicates the fact that it may slumber even more in it that her figure makes her figure really curious late.
Conclusion: Despite strong pictures and two insanely good actors, “Zikaden” only really gets going on the shortened home straight – when it is interesting, the credits roll.
We saw “Zikaden” as part of the Berlinale 2025, where the film was shown in the Panorama section.